Micropterus dolomieu Lacepede / SMALLMOUTH BASS

About this Item

Name

Family: Centrarchidae (Sunfish and Bass)
Scientific Name: Micropterus dolomieu Lacepede
Common Name: SMALLMOUTH BASS

Description

General Description: Spines in dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins; ctenoid scales; no opercular spine; lateral line does not extend onto caudal fin; colorful.
Specific Description: Body depth about one-third length; 68-81 lateral line scales; short dorsal fin spines; sheath of small scales along bases of soft dorsal and anal fins; young with orange-black-white tricolor tail; usually olive green, with vertical bars or un-patterned; not dominated by a dark green lateral band.

Distribution

Distribution: Upper Mississippi drainage; Great Lakes-St Lawrence drainage; Nipigon River; Lake Nipissing; south to Tennessee drainage and Oklahoma. They extend farther north than largemouth bass and occur in cooler habitats.

Ecology

Ecology: Usually in clear, medium-size rivers and lakes, but prefer temperatures above 20 C in the summer. Spawning is in May and June. Females may have 2000-10,000 eggs; they may spawn in several nests. Males guard eggs and offspring in gravel nests. Tagged individuals may travel 20-140 km with homing ability; but most are non-migratory. Feed on fish, crayfish, and insects as adults. Length to 50 cm, sometimes to 60 cm. They are intelligent aquarium fish.

Family Description

New Family Filename: /f/fish5ic/family/sunfish.htm

Related Material

Resolver ID: fish5ic-127

Technical Details

Collection: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Fish Species Descriptions
Record: 188
Link to this Item: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fish5ic/x-188/188

Rights and Permissions

These materials are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. This means you are free to share and adapt the digital objects for any non-commercial purpose, so long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. The license does not in any way limit your rights under copyright law, such as fair use. Please read the license before using this work. If you use materials from this collection, please use the following attribution and copyright notice: "©2019 Regents of the University of Michigan. This work was created by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Fish Division. It is licensed under the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license." If you have questions about the collection, please contact the UMMZ Fish Division. If you have concerns about the inclusion of an item in this collection, please contact Library Information Technology.

Cite this Item

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Full citation: "Micropterus dolomieu Lacepede; SMALLMOUTH BASS." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Fish Species Descriptions. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fish5ic/x-188/188. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 18, 2025.